Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 26

LatAmOil CUBA LatAmOil

Ascent losses widen in 2019

SLOVENIA-FOCUSED Ascent Resources and PG-11A. Earlier Ascent had appealed
reported widened losses in 2019 on July 24, against Slovenian regulator ARSO’s conclusion
after a “challenging” time at the Petisovci tight that the EIA was necessary.
gas field. But the London-listed producer said it Despite these difficulties, Ascent “remains
was optimistic in light of its recent foray into the firmly resolved to protect its Slovenian invest-
Cuban oil and gas market. ment and extract value from its interests in the
Ascent booked a pretax loss of GBP3.7mn Petisovci field.”
($4.6mn) for last year, versus GBP1.4mn in 2018. The company in April acquired Energetical,
Revenues collapsed, totalling only GBP298,000, a UK-based firm with exclusive rights to secure
versus GBP1.9mn in the previous year. a production-sharing contract (PSC) for an
“2019 was a challenging year for the com- onshore oil site in Cuba. Block 9B contains the
pany and its attempts to develop the Petisovci Majaguillar and San Anton oilfields, where three
gas field in Slovenia,” Ascent said in a stock filing. wells flow 190 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.
“Throughout the year the company experienced Ascent went on to sign a memorandum of
continued delays in permitting which have cre- understanding (MoU) last month with Cuban
ated significant headwinds for the company to National Oil & Gas Co. (CUPET) on obtaining
develop the Petisovci gas field commercially.” exclusive rights to three other onshore licences.
Ascent has spent around €50mn on devel- “The Republic of Cuba is one of the few
oping Petisovci over the past 11 years, but it is remaining world-class, yet largely unexploited
now struggling to arrest production decline after hydrocarbon systems,” Ascent said on June 26.
authorities denied it permits to re-stimulate two “Cuba has the advantage of offering an inter-
wells. It suffered a further setback at the start national investor access to good infrastructure
of this month, when Slovenia’s administrative and an educated workforce alongside significant
court ruled that it would need an environmen- under-exploited hydrocarbon resource poten-
tal impact assessment (EIA) to stimulate PG-10 tial.” ™

COLOMBIA
Fitch: Low oil prices, pandemic

could affect Colombia for years

THE fiscal fallout from the coronavirus another major ratings agency, Standard and
(COVID-19) pandemic combined with low oil Poor’s, revised its outlook on the country to
prices could affect Colombia for several years, negative from stable.
according to Richard Francis, the director of Low oil prices and the pandemic have dealt
sovereign ratings at US-based Fitch Ratings. a major blow to the Colombian government,
“In the case of Colombia, it was not just the which has been trying to boost the country’s
factor of the pandemic. It was also the fall in the stagnant oil industry in recent years.`
oil price,” Francis said in a video interview cited
by Reuters.
“It means a loss of not only a year but prob-
ably two or three years at least, so the adjust-
ment will be harder in the case of Colombia,” he
added.
The agency has predicted that Colombia’s
GDP contraction of 4.5% for this year, but Fran-
cis said Fitch was likely to revise that estimate
soon. Colombia’s government has already pre-
dicted that the economy will contract by 5.5%
this year. Additionally, it has already suspended
fiscal deficit limits for this year and next year.
In April, Fitch lowered Colombia’s credit rat-
ing to BBB- from BBB. It did so a month after Ecopetrol is one of the firms that won new contracts last year (Photo: Colprensa)

Week 25 25•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11